FRANKFURT/ BUDAPEST, July 29- Daimler AG said on Friday it would build a new factory in Hungary to make Mercedes-Benz cars, giving a major boost to the local economy and raising the competitive pressure on the luxury automaker's established plants in Germany. The new factory will be the first plant capable of producing both compact cars and larger limousines,...

July 29- Power producer NextEra Energy Inc said it had agreed to buy reorganized Energy Future Holdings Corp and its indirect stake in Oncor Electric Delivery Co in a deal with enterprise value of about $18.4 billion. The agreement will be filed as part of the restructuring of Energy Future, currently before the Delaware bankruptcy court, and it is designed to...

SAO PAULO, July 28- Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said in a statement on Thursday it is in exclusive talks for 60 days with Mexico's Alpek over the potential sale of PetroquimicaSuape and Citepe assets in Brazil's northeast. Mexico's Alpek is the petrochemicals unit of Mexican conglomerate Alfa. Petrobras, as Brazil's state oil...

July 28- Claire's Stores Inc has decided to start negotiations with its creditors about restructuring its debt, as it seeks to avoid becoming the latest U.S. teen retailer to file for bankruptcy protection, according to people familiar with the matter. Apollo Global Management LLC, the private equity firm that owns Claire's, has asked law firm Morgan, Lewis&...

July 28- Duracell said it plans to close a battery-making plant in South Carolina that employs 430 people, making the announcement fewer than five months after being acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.. Duracell said the move will lead to "some" job growth in LaGrange, which is about 330 miles southwest of Lancaster, and that Lancaster workers...

MONTERREY, July 27- Mexico's Cemex still has around $400 million of non-productive assets identified that it could sell as part of its divestment plan, Chief Executive Fernando Gonzalez said on Wednesday. The company earlier on Wednesday said it would sell assets worth up to $2 billion in 2016 and 2017, above a previous goal of $1 billion to $1.5 billion, after a...

MONTERREY, July 27- Mexico's Cemex still has around $400 million of non-productive assets identified that it could sell as part of its divestment plan, Chief Executive Fernando Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

TORONTO, July 27- Barrick Gold Corp, the world's largest gold producer, reported a rise in second-quarter profit on Wednesday and said it plans to sell its 50 percent stake in a western Australia mine to carve more from its debt. Toronto- based Barrick, which has been selling off non-core mining assets and using cash flow to pay down debt, said it will explore selling...

WILMINGTON, Del., July 27- A U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in Manhattan said at a status conference on Wednesday she would approve the plan and was working on an opinion that would explain her reasoning, according to her courtroom deputy Greg White. The case has been unusually contentious, with Sabine and its lenders squaring off against the official...

SAO PAULO, July 25- Aurelius Capital Management LP has contacted bondholders in Oi SA's Netherlands- based units to challenge the basis of a prior restructuring accord that substantially lowered the recovery value of their bonds, seeking to gain clout in Brazil's biggest-ever bankruptcy reorganization. New York- based Aurelius, a distressed debt investment...

Cliff Burrows, head of Starbucks' U.S.-dominated Americas business for eight years, will lead a new group called Siren Retail. John Culver, a 14- year Starbucks veteran, will become group president for global retail, with responsibility for Starbucks retail sales around the world. Culver had been group president for Starbucks China and Asia-Pacific, channel...

July 25- Verizon Communications Inc said it had agreed to buy Yahoo Inc's core internet business for $4.83 billion in cash, ending a lengthy sale process for the fading Web pioneer. "The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo," Yahoo Chief...

A deal would boost Verizon's AOL internet business, which the company acquired last year for $4.4 billion, by giving it access to Yahoo's advertising technology tools, as well other assets such as search, mail, messenger and real estate. Bloomberg News, which reported earlier that Verizon was nearing an agreement to buy the Yahoo assets, cited an anonymous source...

July 22- Farm equipment maker Deere& Co said on Friday it would lay off about 120 production employees at its John Deere Harvester Works factory in east Moline, Illinois from Sept. 6. The factory has about 1,050 production employees, the company said. Deere said it continued to adjust its production workforce according to demand for products manufactured at each...

MONTERREY, July 21- Mexican glass manufacturer Vitro said on Thursday it had agreed to purchase the flat glass unit of U.S. company PPG for around $750 million, giving it a foothold in U.S. and Canadian markets. Under the deal, Monterrey- based Vitro will acquire four plants with a total of five furnaces in the United States, a flat glass investigation unit and four...

SAO PAULO, July 21- Shares in Brazil's largest listed commercial lenders posted their biggest drop in a month on Thursday on a financial blog report that Odebrecht SA could be considering filing for bankruptcy protection, which the company denied. An index grouping banking and financial shares trading in the São Paulo Stock Exchange dropped as much as 2.1...

*Oil falls about 1.5 pct ahead of inventory data. July 20- The Dow and the S&P 500 were little changed on Wednesday, easing after hitting fresh intraday records, as the boost to tech stocks from Microsoft's results was curbed by a drop in energy stock as oil prices fell. Microsoft was up 4.9 percent at $55.72, making it the biggest boost to the three major indexes, after...

NEW YORK, July 20- U.S. crude oil futures hit 2- month lows on Wednesday on technical selling pressure and liquidation by investors fearing a supply glut despite impending government crude inventory data likely to show a drawdown. The front-month August contract for U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate futures was down 80 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $43.85 a barrel...